Prison
ooc: I continue to fail. It took me longer to recover from my trip (why is it I always feel like I need a vacation after I take a vacation???), so this is about a week late in going up. Since I established in her previous post that she'd be back in two weeks, we'll use bendy time and say this happened last weekend. Or whenever. Whatever works best for everyone else.
It was a prison: more than any jail could ever be. At least in jail she'd have other people around to talk to, and television and food and visitors. Here, she had nothing but Dave and her own thoughts as company. Three months she'd been trapped here, with no way out and no respite. Three months that, thanks to the weird way time passed on this side of reality, felt like at least a year. Maybe three years. She'd tried to count, but with no windows to follow the passage of the sun, there was no way to tell when one day ended and the next began.
Her sentence was finally - almost - over now. Just one more day, she thought. Or two? Again, there was no way to tell until Dave showed up and told her the date. The last time he'd been there, he'd told her she had 3 left. That felt like two days ago, but who knew? Until he was called back, or she was released, she wouldn't know for sure.
While she waited, she made a mental list of everything she had to do once she was free to resume her old life. Imagine that: Cordelia making lists. That only goes to show just how bored she's been.
The order of her list changes, depending on her mood. Sometimes #s 1 and 2 switch places. Other times #s 5 and 6 switch. But mostly, she has her first days of freedom planned. Just don't tell anyone about the burger joint. Cordelia isn't usually big on fast food, but after eating nothing for 3 months, what she's craving more than anything is a fat, juicy cheeseburger. Diet be damned. She's been in a kind of suspended animation all this time, so she's not actually hungry - her body's exactly the same as it was the day she arrived, except for some additional split ends and chewed-up nails. But it's psychological: she hasn't tasted food in so long, she wants everything now.
As she's trying to remember what French fries taste like (her latest "hobby"), she stretches out in the middle of the main room of the oracle den and stares up at the ceiling. Waiting. How will she know when her time is up? Will she just be booted out on the street with no warning? Will Dave be sent in to tell her? Will a bell ring somewhere, like a giant microwave timer? Or will nothing happen at all? What if she's already free, and doesn't know it because she stopped trying ot get out months ago?
That would be just like the Powers, woudln't it? Let her go but not tell her, so she sits there like a stupid animal that doesn't see its cage has been unlocked. In fact, the more she thinks about it, the more likely it seems. That's just their style, them with the never sharing. Can't hurt to try, right?
"Here goes nothing." Cordelia stands up, checks her pockets to make sure she has everything. She's been making sure to be fully dressed with all of her belongings on her ever since Dave told her she was a few days away from the end of her imprisonment. Just in case they let her go with no warning. The last thing she wanted was to have to come right back to get her phone and keys.
It had been so long since she teleported, it took a minute to remember how. Closing her eyes, she pictured her condo. She thought about it hard, but it had been so long, she wasn't sure she was remembering it right. Rather than risk ending up in someone else's house and getting arrested for real, she shook her head and merely thought "OUT."
It wasn't the street outside the oracle's hideaway. That's where she'd expected to end up if it worked (and damn the Powers - how long had she been free without knowing it?). Instead she was... somewhere in L.A. She didn't recognize anything except... of course. Laughing, she headed for the neon sign across the street.
In-and-Out Burger
She got her food to go, went into the ladies room where she could be alone, then flashed herself back to her condo. She was rusty again, so she found herself on the beach instead, but it was close enough. She would have to practice getting her aim back later.
It was weird, being back there. As she headed for the kitchen to plug in her phone and start on her long-awaited meal, she couldn't help thinking how empty the place felt. She supposed that made sense: she hadn't really ever lived there alone. Even when she first bought the place, she had still been sharing it with Lindsey. Maybe only on weekends, but it always felt like theirs more than hers. And whatever time she was there for after they broke up... well, she hadn't exactly been sober then, had she? It felt different now. Wrong.
Maybe she should move #10 up a few spots.
She ate half her burger, then picked up her phone and called her voice mail. The box was nearly full, and it took a while to wade through some of the crap at the beginning. She listened, deleted, chewed, listened, deleted... then got to Angel's message from a few weeks ago and hung up, leaving the last few messages unheard.
Kara had been in a bombing? She and Adhra had been hurt - badly enough to be hospitalized - and the damn Powers That Fuck With You didn't feel it was important enough for her to know???
She shoved aside her lunch - her appetite was gone now - and picked up her phone again. She called Angel, forgetting that it was still daytime in New York, and that he probably wouldn't be up yet. When his voice mail clicked on, she cleared her throat and started to babble.
"Angel, hi. It's Cordelia. I'm out, finally. I just got your message, and now that I'm leaving this one for you, I realize I probably should have listened to the rest of my messages before calling, in case you left another one later. I guess I panicked when I heard about Kara. Are she and Addie all right? Are they still in Gotham, or are they back in New York? I should call Harry, but now I'm kind of afraid to, in case... I don't know. You said they were all right, didn't you? So I'm sure it's fine. I should probably just go there and see them, but I've been away so long, I guess I feel sort of weird about it. That's crazy, right? But I don't know if Kara's going to be upset about me being gone, and if she's still hurt, I don't want to make things worse, you know? Ugh. What a mess I made, huh? Um, call me back when you get this, unless I'm already there."
She hung up, feeling weird. She'd been away from people (except for Dave, but he didn't count since he was another oracle) for what felt to her like years. It was like she forgot how to talk, even to her friends and loved ones. She didn't know where she stood with anyone anymore, or if she even fit in with them the way she used to. She hadn't felt this alone since she'd come back from the dead 5 years ago. They'd warned her in rehab that coming back would be hard, that she might have to work to repair some of the relationships that had been hurt by the pills. She hadn't thought it would be that bad, but going into oracle seclusion for another 3 months after that... now she wasn't sure what to expect, with anyone.
Only one way to find out: go to New York. She could try to teleport there, but she wasn't sure she trusted her aim right now. Maybe it was better, for now, to use more traditional methods. The Osborn jet was probably in New York or Gotham, so rather than have to call for it to come get her, she flipped through the phone book and called her favorite charter jet company. It was her lucky day, they told her: they had someone at LAX right now, all fueled up and ready. All she had to do was get there.
ooc: Okay, since I haven't been able to discuss this yet with the other muns involved, I figured I'd leave it at that for now, and worry about her actually being in NY later? I hope that works all right for everyone? I'm going to try to be better about actually being around from now on. It's hard, once you're out of the habit of logging into chat and whatnot every day!
It was a prison: more than any jail could ever be. At least in jail she'd have other people around to talk to, and television and food and visitors. Here, she had nothing but Dave and her own thoughts as company. Three months she'd been trapped here, with no way out and no respite. Three months that, thanks to the weird way time passed on this side of reality, felt like at least a year. Maybe three years. She'd tried to count, but with no windows to follow the passage of the sun, there was no way to tell when one day ended and the next began.
Her sentence was finally - almost - over now. Just one more day, she thought. Or two? Again, there was no way to tell until Dave showed up and told her the date. The last time he'd been there, he'd told her she had 3 left. That felt like two days ago, but who knew? Until he was called back, or she was released, she wouldn't know for sure.
While she waited, she made a mental list of everything she had to do once she was free to resume her old life. Imagine that: Cordelia making lists. That only goes to show just how bored she's been.
- Go home and charge iPhone
- Go to In-and-Out Burger and get... everything. The diet can wait until tomorrow.
- Check voice mail and email once phone is charged enough. Answer whatever's important, deal with parents and spam later.
- Long, hot bubble bath. Rinse and repeat as needed.
- New clothes - serious shopping withdrawal must be dealt with ASAP
- Salon - hair and main/pedi
- Once presentable again: go to NY and see family (probably should call parents too?)
- Catch up with LA friends
- Catch up on news (i.e. what Britney's been up to, who won American Idol and DWTS)
- Visit parents
- Put condo on market
The order of her list changes, depending on her mood. Sometimes #s 1 and 2 switch places. Other times #s 5 and 6 switch. But mostly, she has her first days of freedom planned. Just don't tell anyone about the burger joint. Cordelia isn't usually big on fast food, but after eating nothing for 3 months, what she's craving more than anything is a fat, juicy cheeseburger. Diet be damned. She's been in a kind of suspended animation all this time, so she's not actually hungry - her body's exactly the same as it was the day she arrived, except for some additional split ends and chewed-up nails. But it's psychological: she hasn't tasted food in so long, she wants everything now.
As she's trying to remember what French fries taste like (her latest "hobby"), she stretches out in the middle of the main room of the oracle den and stares up at the ceiling. Waiting. How will she know when her time is up? Will she just be booted out on the street with no warning? Will Dave be sent in to tell her? Will a bell ring somewhere, like a giant microwave timer? Or will nothing happen at all? What if she's already free, and doesn't know it because she stopped trying ot get out months ago?
That would be just like the Powers, woudln't it? Let her go but not tell her, so she sits there like a stupid animal that doesn't see its cage has been unlocked. In fact, the more she thinks about it, the more likely it seems. That's just their style, them with the never sharing. Can't hurt to try, right?
"Here goes nothing." Cordelia stands up, checks her pockets to make sure she has everything. She's been making sure to be fully dressed with all of her belongings on her ever since Dave told her she was a few days away from the end of her imprisonment. Just in case they let her go with no warning. The last thing she wanted was to have to come right back to get her phone and keys.
It had been so long since she teleported, it took a minute to remember how. Closing her eyes, she pictured her condo. She thought about it hard, but it had been so long, she wasn't sure she was remembering it right. Rather than risk ending up in someone else's house and getting arrested for real, she shook her head and merely thought "OUT."
It wasn't the street outside the oracle's hideaway. That's where she'd expected to end up if it worked (and damn the Powers - how long had she been free without knowing it?). Instead she was... somewhere in L.A. She didn't recognize anything except... of course. Laughing, she headed for the neon sign across the street.
In-and-Out Burger
She got her food to go, went into the ladies room where she could be alone, then flashed herself back to her condo. She was rusty again, so she found herself on the beach instead, but it was close enough. She would have to practice getting her aim back later.
It was weird, being back there. As she headed for the kitchen to plug in her phone and start on her long-awaited meal, she couldn't help thinking how empty the place felt. She supposed that made sense: she hadn't really ever lived there alone. Even when she first bought the place, she had still been sharing it with Lindsey. Maybe only on weekends, but it always felt like theirs more than hers. And whatever time she was there for after they broke up... well, she hadn't exactly been sober then, had she? It felt different now. Wrong.
Maybe she should move #10 up a few spots.
She ate half her burger, then picked up her phone and called her voice mail. The box was nearly full, and it took a while to wade through some of the crap at the beginning. She listened, deleted, chewed, listened, deleted... then got to Angel's message from a few weeks ago and hung up, leaving the last few messages unheard.
Kara had been in a bombing? She and Adhra had been hurt - badly enough to be hospitalized - and the damn Powers That Fuck With You didn't feel it was important enough for her to know???
She shoved aside her lunch - her appetite was gone now - and picked up her phone again. She called Angel, forgetting that it was still daytime in New York, and that he probably wouldn't be up yet. When his voice mail clicked on, she cleared her throat and started to babble.
"Angel, hi. It's Cordelia. I'm out, finally. I just got your message, and now that I'm leaving this one for you, I realize I probably should have listened to the rest of my messages before calling, in case you left another one later. I guess I panicked when I heard about Kara. Are she and Addie all right? Are they still in Gotham, or are they back in New York? I should call Harry, but now I'm kind of afraid to, in case... I don't know. You said they were all right, didn't you? So I'm sure it's fine. I should probably just go there and see them, but I've been away so long, I guess I feel sort of weird about it. That's crazy, right? But I don't know if Kara's going to be upset about me being gone, and if she's still hurt, I don't want to make things worse, you know? Ugh. What a mess I made, huh? Um, call me back when you get this, unless I'm already there."
She hung up, feeling weird. She'd been away from people (except for Dave, but he didn't count since he was another oracle) for what felt to her like years. It was like she forgot how to talk, even to her friends and loved ones. She didn't know where she stood with anyone anymore, or if she even fit in with them the way she used to. She hadn't felt this alone since she'd come back from the dead 5 years ago. They'd warned her in rehab that coming back would be hard, that she might have to work to repair some of the relationships that had been hurt by the pills. She hadn't thought it would be that bad, but going into oracle seclusion for another 3 months after that... now she wasn't sure what to expect, with anyone.
Only one way to find out: go to New York. She could try to teleport there, but she wasn't sure she trusted her aim right now. Maybe it was better, for now, to use more traditional methods. The Osborn jet was probably in New York or Gotham, so rather than have to call for it to come get her, she flipped through the phone book and called her favorite charter jet company. It was her lucky day, they told her: they had someone at LAX right now, all fueled up and ready. All she had to do was get there.
ooc: Okay, since I haven't been able to discuss this yet with the other muns involved, I figured I'd leave it at that for now, and worry about her actually being in NY later? I hope that works all right for everyone? I'm going to try to be better about actually being around from now on. It's hard, once you're out of the habit of logging into chat and whatnot every day!